This morning brought the always debatable Academy Award nominations for the year in film that was 2015. We’ve already run through the disappointing side of this year’s selections by pointing out those who were snubbed, but now we’d like to look on the lighter side and point out some of the surprises, especially Mad Max: Fury Road finding glory with no fewer than 10 nominations. So let’s check out the 2016 Oscars surprises after the jump! Read More »

The Golden Globes were last night, but the Awards season is far from over, as the Oscars and more events are still to come. Generally one of the few joys of all this awards coverage are The Hollywood Reporter roundtables, which puts some of the most talked about actors, writers, directors, and more artists in a room together for an hour. This year’s actress roundtable features Carey Mulligan (Suffragette), Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Cate Blanchett (Carol), Jane Fonda (Youth), Brie Larson (Room), Helen Mirren (Woman in Gold), Charlotte Rampling (45 Years), and Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs).

Some movies capture imagined lands and dream logic in special and unique ways, and Guy Maddin‘s new film The Forbidden Room is the weirdest dream movie of the year. A labyrinth of interconnected stories, the film constantly shifts from one thing to another, pulling together pulp story prompts and suppressed desires to create a viewing experience that is unlike anything else I’ve seen in a long time.

There’s not a whole lot in this first official domestic trailer for Lars von Trier‘s Melancholia that we haven’t seen in previous trailers and clips. (Such as the great UK trailer we just saw a few days ago.) But what the hell, the film is among our most-anticipated of the year, and this trailer offers up a great HD look at the gorgeous and subtle cinematography from Manuel Alberto Claro.

So hit the jump and get one more look at the ways in which sisters played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg deal with the possibility of the impending end of life on Earth. Read More »

It’s been a big, loud year for Lars von Trier, thanks in part to his new film Melancholia, and more so to the Cannes press conference comments that saw the director banned from the festival. But getting beyond that controversy, there’s the fact that Melancholia is one of the best-reviewed films of the director’s career, and remains one of my most-anticipated films of the fall.

We’ve seen one trailer for the film, in which Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg play sisters with very different dispositions who are staring down the end of the world on the eve of Dunst’s character’s wedding. Now here’s the UK trailer, which nicely shows off the ensemble cast (which also includes Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgård, Stellan Skarsgård and Udo Kier) and opens on a surprisingly upbeat note before settling into the anxious mode that you’d expect from a film about the end of the world. Read More »

We just saw a trailer this week for Lars Von Trier‘s new film Melancholia, which will premiere in competition at Cannes this May. We still don’t know too much about the film — he famously proclaimed “no more happy endings!” when announcing it, and there is a basic sci-fi concept wrapped around a family drama and some sort of existential crisis for the main character, played by Kirsten Dunst.

Now Lars Trier has dropped a few tidbits about the film to Empire, and those who can’t wait for Magnolia to set a US release date for the film should hit the jump to enjoy the scant new bits of info. Read More »

The best thing I could possibly find on the web this Friday morning is the new website for Lars Von Trier‘s upcoming film, Melancholia, complete with the first trailer for the movie. Though the story is (kind of) about the end of the world, the slightly not safe for work trailer (there is a little bit of nudity) is actually almost gentle in places.

The clip briefly charts the upcoming wedding of the younger of two sisters, played by Kirsten Dunst, looking effectively pensive and anxious. But seemingly coinciding with the ceremony is the emergence of a planet that was previously ‘hiding behind the sun’ and is now on a collision course with Earth. What follows appears to be very much the product of Lars Von Trier, but perhaps not quite the Von Trier of Antichrist. I thought he said ‘no more happy endings’? Read More »

Terry George, who wrote and directed Hotel Rwanda and Reservation Road and wrote In the Name of the Father, has roped in Brendan Fraser to star in the comedy heist film Whole Lotta Sole. The film is written by Mr. George and Thomas Gallagher, and follows “a young man robbing a fish shop in order to pay off a gambling debt; the heist goes terribly — and humorously — awry when it turns into a hostage situation.” Yep: robbing a fish shop.

Brendan Fraser is not the young man; he’s the shopkeeper. (But he is trying to elude his father in law, a gangster.) He can be a solid actor, when not being called upon to mug and grimace in family adventures. No idea how this one will turn out, but we’ll keep a lookout for the actors chosen to play the robber and gangster father in law. [Variety]

After the break, Clifton Collins, Jr. faces the supernatural and Hayley Atwell books an odd gig. Read More »

Lars Von Trier created no small amount of controversy with his last film, Antichrist, which chronicled the breakdown of a relationship in explicit, mind-bending fashion. So he raised eyebrows when he pronounced ‘no more happy endings!’ for his next picture, Melancholia, which also expands his canvas from the destruction of a couple’s relations to the utter destruction of the Earth.

Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgård, Stellan Skarsgård and Udo Kier, and explores the responses of two different women (played by Dunst and Gainsbourg) to the impending end of the world. And now the film, which is still being finished, will be distributed in the US by Magnolia. Read More »

A lot of you probably might not recognize Mark Romanek‘s name, but you’ve almost certainly seen his work. He was probably one of the best music video directors to come out of the 1990’s. His videos have included Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”, “Scream” – Michael Jackson’s grammy award winning collaboration with sister Janet Jackson (at $7 million, it might forever hold the title as the most expensive music video ever made), Janet Jackson’s “Got ‘Til It’s Gone”, Johnny Cash’s gut-wrenching cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”, En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind”, Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way”, Beck’s “Devil’s Haircut”, Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” and Fiona Apple’s “Criminal”.

His 2002 feature film One Hour Photo is probably best known for Robin Williams’ dramatic turn. While the film is beloved by cinephiles, it pretty much went under the radar of mainstream audiences. It did however gain Romanek a lot of the respect in the movie industry. His follow-up, a big screen adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro‘s novel Never Let Me Go, premiered at the 37th Telluride Film Festival. The book was named one of TIME’s 100 Best Novels (from 1923 to the Present), featured on many top ten books of 2005 lists, and a finalist in the National Book Critic Circle Award.